Drew Wilson
The Senate inched closer to the House Transportation and Economic Development budget Monday night with its third proposal, cutting the difference between the two chambers to a couple dozen line items and disagreements on funding sources.
The House and Senate came to terms on the Department of Transportation budget earlier Monday, but still had a wide gulf between their respective plans for the Department of Economic Opportunity.
The Senate made steps in closing that gap with it’s third offer, which matched the House position on about 20 line items, including the removal of $450,000 in business development center cash for Florida International University and a host of other six-figure sums within the Department of Economic Opportunity budget.
The two chambers sit at about $7 million apart for the department, and neither the House and Senate have included any funding for the Florida Enterprise Fund, a pet project of Gov. Rick Scott.
The Senate offer was met with a brief recess and an agreement to bump about three dozen DEO line items to budget chiefs Rep. Richard Corcoran and Sen. Tom Lee. The House also bumped a pair of items in the Military Affairs budget, the Ready Centers Revitalization Plan and statewide construction projects, which the House had funded at $9.7 million and the Senate had at $3 million.
The other two segments in the TED silo, the departments of state and transportation, match in overall funding, though the sources of a handful of line items aren’t in alignment. The bumped items now move to Corcoran and Lee.
